Amateur Correspondent was published in the 1930s in Belleville, New Jersey, U.S.A. It had evolved from Science-Fantasy Correspondent, edited by Willis Conover, who ceased publishing after the death of H.P. Lovecraft. He gave the material he had collected for his fanzine to Stickney for Amateur Correspondent, including the portrait of Lovecraft he had commissioned from Virgil Finlay.

The first issue was published in May-June 1937. Contributors included Willis Conover, Robert F. Ennis, Jack E. Fry, H.P. Lovecraft, E. Hoffman Price, and John C. Sidenius.

This issue features the first publication of the essay, "Notes On Writing Weird Fiction", by H. P. Lovecraft.